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Nicholas Easton (1593-1675)
}} Biography * 4th and 8th President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1650-1651) (1654-1654) * 4th Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1672-1674) * 2nd and 4th Deputy Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Nicholas Easton was an early colonial President and Governor of Rhode Island. Born in Hampshire, England, he lived in the towns of Lymington and Romsey before immigrating to New England with his two sons in 1634. Once in the New World, he lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony towns of Ipswich, Newbury, and Hampton. Easton supported the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, and was disarmed in 1637, and then banished from the Massachusetts colony the following year. Along with many other Hutchinson supporters, he settled in Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, later a part of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was in Portsmouth for about a year when he and eight others signed an agreement to create a plantation elsewhere on the island, establishing the town of Newport. In Newport, Easton became active in civil affairs, serving as assistant to the governor for several years, and in 1650 was elected President of the four towns of the colony. During this time the colony was very fragile, and its authority was frequently usurped by its much larger neighbors, the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony. Following his first presidency, the colony was split in 1651 by William Coddington who wanted the two island towns to be under a separate government, and who went to England to get the authority to do this. In 1654 the four towns were reunited, and Easton was once again elected President, presiding for another year over the united colony. During the last ten years of his life, Easton was very active in civil matters, serving as Deputy to the General Assembly, Deputy Governor, and then two years as Governor of the colony, which had been strengthened by the Royal Charter of 1663. Easton was a tanner by trade, and also a minister of sorts, being criticized by Massachusetts magistrate John Winthrop for his theological opinions. He became a Quaker, and after a long life was buried in a Friends' Cemetery, the Coddington Cemetery in Newport next to his second of three wives. Easton's Beach and Easton's Point in Newport are named for him. His younger son, John Easton, later became Governor of the colony. Early Life Born in Lymington, Hampshire, England, Nicholas Easton was the son of John and Elizabeth Easton, and was still living in Lymington in 1616.1 His father died when he was very young, after which his mother married John Burrard. As a teenager his stepfather died, and his mother then married William Dollinge.2 While Easton's father and first stepfather both worked at the salt works in Lymington, he became a tanner instead. 1634 Mary and John Voyage He was a passenger on the English ship Mary and John, which sailed from Southampton in March 1634, bound for New England. The ship arrived safe at Massachusetts Bay. 1639 Newport Founders Newport Settlement 1639 was founded in 1639. Its eight founders and first officers were Nicholas Easton, William Coddington, John Clarke, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Jeremy Clark, Thomas Hazard, and Henry Bull. They left Portsmouth, Rhode Island after a political fallout with Anne Hutchinson and her followers.needed As part of the agreement, Coddington and his followers took control of the southern side of the island. They were soon joined by Nicholas Easton, who had recently been expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding heretical beliefs. The settlement grew to be the largest of the four original settlements of Rhode Island, which also included the Colony of Providence Plantations and Shawomett. Many of the first colonists in Newport became Baptists, and the second Baptist congregation in Rhode Island was formed in 1640 under the leadership of John Clarke. Marriage and Family 1st Marriage: Mary Kent He may have married in Lymington, but very soon thereafter he lived in Romsey where all four of his children were baptized, and where his two younger children were buried. His first wife, Mary Kent, was the mother of all of his children. She died in 1630, shortly after the birth and death of their fourth child, and in March 1634 Easton and his two surviving sons boarded the Mary & John at Southampton for passage to New England. # John Easton (1621-1705) - immigrated from England with father, also a colonial Governor of Rhode Island during King William's War when French privateers raided the Rhode Island coastline # Peter Easton (1622-1693) -immigrated from England with father, # James Easton (1626-1630) - died in England # Elizabeth Easton (1629-1629) - died in England References * Nicholas Easton (1593-1675)/List of Notable Descendants * Gov Nicholas Easton - Wikipedia